Nina’s 4th India Blog Post

Today was taken up with attending the International Symposium on Yoga and Medicine. This symposium focused on the issues with doing research studies that would produce evidence based proof of yoga’s efficacy for various

at the symposium

issues and ailments.

The speakers were mostly MD’s with a few professors thrown in. Over all it was informative. The hospital it was held at announced they were opening a yoga center onsite and would undertake research while offering yoga to their patients.

I attended with Janet, Laura and Melanie.

January 16, 2017

Practice this morning was backbends. We reviewed Sunita’s class and wore ourselves out.

I again went to the medical class and I was able to assist a person from start to finish. It was good to have something to do and someone to help. It made it worthwhile and interesting!

Class with Abhijata was fast paced and fun.

We had discovered that Natural Ice Cream would deliver if you ordered 1 kilogram of ice cream. So we did! Now the back story is that we don’t have a working freezer so the two of us attempted to eat it all! 1 kg of ice cream is quite a lot. We managed to eat about ¾ of it. It was extremely good ice cream.

Prasarita Padottanasana
Full Arm Balance, come down with legs together
Sirsasana to split legs to Virasana in Sirsasana to Parsva Sirsasana with legs in Virasana
Upavista Konasana to Parsva Upavista Konasana, full pose
Parivrtta Trikonasana
Parivrtta Parsvakonasana, back knee down
Parsva Upavista Konasana
Full Arm Balance
Paschimottanasana in wall ropes while others did Marichyasana III, Ardha Matsyendrasana, Parsva Upavista Konasana, etc.
Sarvangasana, Parsva Halasana, leave right foot down, left foot up to come to Parsvaikapada Sarvangasana, then hop foot back in for Eka Pada Sarvangasana.
Supta Konasana to Parsva Halasana to Parsva Karnipidasana
Those who could do Pindasana, Parsva Pindasana did. Those who could do Parsva Sarvangasana did.
Ended with Parsva Upavista Konasana. Had the pose changed?

January 17, 2017

Prashant’s class

Today’s topic was the back. We were to study “backology”. In each pose were to do by the back, for the back, with the back, of the back. I found today’s class hard in several ways. First, I felt tired. There are always days where you feel like you hit the wall and can’t absorb anymore. Today seemed to be starting this way. Also, I overslept and had to hurry to class.

During class it slowly dawned on me that I had no connection to my back at all! It felt like a dead zone. I couldn’t do anything by the back. Then I also realized that Prashant had left the definition of the “back” vague. I started thinking, what is the back? I realized that my working definition for this moment was the muscles on either side of the thoracic spine. But the back encompasses much more. I need to rethink my back and try to make a connection.

We once again went to assist in Gulnaaz’s medical class and then took the beginner class following. Gulnaaz teaches with sharp attention and friendliness.

Gulnaaz 6pm class

Adho Mukha Svanasana
Uttanasana
Jumping back and forth AMS/Uttanasana
Tadasana
Urdhva Baddanguliasana on the toes
Stand on one leg, bend the other, and hold the other shin with both hands
Stand on leg, hold the other shin with same hand
Vrksasana, hold the shin then balance
Utthita Trikonasana
Virabhadrasana II
Utthita Parsvakonasana
Ardha Chandrasana
Uttanasana
Virasana
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Sirsasana
Chatush Padasana
Setu Bandha on block, feet at wall

January 18th

Sunita’s class was wonderful. She is keeping it simple, teaching basic actions succinctly.

Tadasana
She asked to observe where our attention was. After we answered she said we were missing the airpit action. Back to front. The theme of the class became clear – broadness of the collar bones.

After class Eva and Natasza from Poland came over to have lunch. It was very interesting learning about Iyengar Yoga in Poland.

January 19, 2017

Today’s lunch guest was Janet Lilly. Janet is an interesting and well-spoken woman. I am glad we met her.

movie time

At 4pm we went to another gathering hosted by the Institute. The film, “Light on Sadhana” was shown. This film was prepared to show Mr. Iyengar on the event of his 94th birthday. It was a touching film. I especially enjoyed the photos of Mr. Iyengar doing fun things like bowling, swinging and eating ice cream.

Class with Raya followed and it was a killer. We did jumpings and arm balances. My arms are completely fatigued.

In the afternoon we went to MG Road for shopping in the afternoon and lunch with Priyanka’s friend.

January 21, 2017

Today was a long and fun day. We started with Sunita’s class at 9:30am. Backbends for the third time in a row!
After lunch, Nana picked us up for a day of site seeing around Pune. Nana is a rickshaw driver extraordinaire. You call up Nana a few days in advance and reserve his time. He then will take you wherever you need a wait while you shop or tour temples. Today we asked Nana to take us site seeing within the city of Pune. After a discuss in Marathi with Priyanka we settled on an itinerary. The highlights were as follows.

Museum: We went to a museum of Indian artifacts are art. I especially enjoyed the musical instrument section. I didn’t realize how complicated a sitar was and am now wondering how it is tuned and how all the strings function.

temple

Temple: We went to a temple built in the 1700’s. The architecture was beautiful. The temple had a older part and a newer, more ornate hall added on. Only exterior pictures were allowed.

Sikh Temple: we stopped briefly at the Sikh temple. The friendly man who greeted us wanted to know where we were from. On our exit he offered us food. The design of the temple was very different from the Hindu temples.

Empress Botanical Garden: we had a nice break from the noise and traffic at the botanical garden. It was nice to sit in the shade and wait out the hottest part of the day.

Meditation Temple: Nana took us to the meditation temple and library of Sri Vivekananda. We enjoyed sitting quietly for about 10 minutes. Nana treated us to some very good street chai.

Parvati Hill: there was a temple on this hill and it was a long walk up. We saw goats on the path. Nana timed it just right for us. The day had cooled and we had fantastic views of Pune from every direction. Pune is truly a huge city.

Dinner at Shrabee, more ice cream at Natural ice cream and then home!

Sunita’s 9:30am class
“exist in your buttocks”

AMV
AMS
Utthita Trikonasana: left leg diagonally back to get feel of buttock in.
Utthita Parsvakonasana
Virabhadrasana I
Virabhadrasana I with chair
Sirsasana
Sirsasana to Viparita Dandasana

UD and DPVD with feet on height – stage, benches, chair, etc.
learn to go up with arm/shoulder blades and legs/hips/buttocks, not with spine

Sarvangasana drop to Setu Bandha (no blankets under the shoulders)

Sunday January 22

Today we went on a birding safari. The trip included a boating adventure on Bhigwan Resevoir to see flamingoes

Pavarti Hill Temple

and a visit to a hill temple of Bhuleshwar, the famous temple of Lord Shiva.

The village of Bhigwan was very small and the only way to get there was on a bumpy narrow road. We were served a traditional breakfast and chai. We then took an hour boat trip to see the flamingoes. The boats kept their distance, but we had a good pair of binoculars to see the birds. They were spectacular.

The temple was fantastic – it was built in the 1300’s. The ancient stone carvings were mesmerizing. Our guide, who has a master in Indology share many insights into the carvings and the temples history.

For lunch we had Thali. This is traditional Maharashtrian food. The dishes were varied and plentiful. I especially liked the fritters.

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